Azernews.Az

By Trend

The shelling of the Azerbaijani city of Ganja by the Armenian armed forces is a gross violation of international humanitarian law, Kamal Makili-Aliyev, Affiliated researcher, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Lund, Sweden), Senior Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights, Malmö University (Sweden) told Trend.

"In accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, the civilian population cannot be the target of an attack by anyone, including the army and armed formations. This means that any military operations should not be planned or carried out using armed forces against the civilian population." Makili-Aliev notes.

According to him, the civilian population should be protected in the conduct of hostilities, not only from their own army but also from the enemy's army. The enemy is not only obliged not to attack the civilian population but also to take measures to protect it from hostilities. Therefore, actions associated with a targeted attack on the civilian population, including missile strikes on places of compact residence of the civilian population in cities, as in the case of Ganja, is a direct violation of international humanitarian law, and not only the norms of the 1949 Geneva Conventions but also additional protocols to them.

As Makili-Aliyev noted, these norms are the norms of international customary humanitarian law and they apply to any state, regardless of whether it has acceded to the Geneva Conventions or not. These are the rules and customs of warfare, and, in any case, actions that violate them entail prosecution.

"This responsibility is divided into two types - state and individual. This means that the state bears separate responsibility for war crimes, and individuals, that is, the military or politicians who ordered an attack on the civilian population, are individually responsible for this in accordance with norms of international humanitarian law, "he said.